1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Waithman, Robert

WAITHMAN, ROBERT (1764–1833), Lord Mayor of London, was born at Wrexham in 1764. After being employed for some time in a London linen draper’s, he opened, about 1786, a draper’s shop of his own, and made a considerable fortune. In 1818 he was returned to parliament, as a liberal, for the city of London. He lost his seat at the election of 1820, but regained it in 1826, and retained it till his death, taking part vigorously in the parliamentary debates, and strenuously supporting reform. In 1823 he was Lord Mayor of London. Waithman died in London on the 6th of February 1833. An obelisk erected by his friends in Ludgate Circus, London, adjoining the site of his first shop, commemorates his memory.